A Public Health Approach to Infectious Disease Prevention and Control for the 21st Century

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Location:

Speaker:

Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

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Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will apply a public health view to preventing and controlling global diseases, such as food-borne illness, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis (TB), during NIAID's 2011 Kinyoun Lecture. The lecture, titled “A Public Health Approach to Infectious Disease Prevention and Control for the 21st Century,” will be held on Thursday, November 17, at 2:00 p.m., in the Lipsett Amphitheater, Building 10.

Frieden was named CDC Director and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in June 2009. Throughout his career, he has worked to control communicable and non-communicable diseases in the United States and around the world. From 1992–1996, Frieden led efforts in New York City to control TB, an initiative that reduced TB incidence in the city by half. From there, Frieden worked in India for five years assisting with national TB control efforts.

During his tenure (2002-2009) as Commissioner of the New York City Health Department, Frieden championed tobacco control efforts that produced major declines in smoking, particularly among teens, implemented a diabetes tracking system in response to the city’s growing epidemic, took an aggressive public health approach to stemming the city’s HIV/AIDS problem, and oversaw regulations requiring restaurant chains to prominently post calorie information. While Health Commissioner, New York City also became the first U.S. city to ban artificial trans-fats from restaurants. Frieden is also credited with greatly expanding colon cancer screenings across various races and ethnicities in the city and establishing the largest community-based electronic health records project in the country.

As CDC director, Frieden has focused on further enhancing CDC’s capacities in epidemiology, surveillance, and laboratory science; strengthening support for state and local public health; further increasing impact in global health; better using public health science to inform policies; and maximizing health impact through, among other efforts, focus on key winnable battles in public health including tobacco control, nutrition and food safety, health-care associated infections, HIV prevention, motor vehicle injury prevention, and teen pregnancy prevention.

A graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health, Frieden completed infectious diseases training at Yale University. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Frieden, who speaks fluent Spanish, has published more than 200 scientific articles.

The Kinyoun Lecture honors Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, who in 1887 founded the Laboratory of Hygiene, forerunner of NIH, to study infectious diseases. NIAID sponsors the Kinyoun Lecture series, which highlights advances in the understanding of infection and immunity.